MONTREAL — Auston Matthews is blowing away his Maple Leafs teammate who has seen just about everything in the National Hockey League.

Patrick Marleau has been at it for 20 years, but the 38-year-old can’t recall watching such a young player seize the big moments and take control the way Matthews does.

“I don’t think so,” Marleau said. “He is coming up huge right now and it’s fun to watch.”

The latest for the Matthews highlight reel came on Saturday night when he beat Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price in overtime, not only giving the Leafs a 4-3 win but putting a hard stop to the Leafs’ 14-game losing streak (0-9-5) against their bitter rivals.

This after Matthews, who has started the 2017-18 regular season with five goals in five games, scored in overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night in Toronto.

At 48 seconds of the extra period, before a boisterous crowd at the Bell Centre, Matthews took a pass from William Nylander and went high on Price as the Leafs beat the Canadiens for the first time since Jan. 18, 2014.

And it was the 600th NHL win for Babcock, who celebrated afterward with a sandwich from Schwartz’s, his favourite Montreal deli.

“They want to be in those moments,” Babcock said of Matthews and Nylander. “I think guys who have been doing that their whole lives just believe they are going to get it done at that time.

“I didn’t think we were outstanding by any means, but we found a way to win and it was a good road game. Our goaltender got better as the game went on and had a good third and in the end, we win.”

Babcock implored his players to be better after he detested the effort in a loss to New Jersey on Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre. Truth be told, they were not excellent for the full 60 minutes, but Babcock saw enough to be satisfied as the club improved its record to 4-1-0, winning for the first time in Montreal since October 2013.

“We tried, we competed,” Babcock said. “I’m good all the time as long as you compete.

“It’s not about whether you lost, it’s about whether you competed and went about your business.

“We’re not playing near as good as we were at the end of last year, not even close. But we’re probably playing better than we were at this time last year. We have more talent, but we can still play way better than we are playing and we plan on getting better.”

Matthews already had scored a pretty goal in the game, coming in the first period when he beat an unbalanced Price with a quick shot following an end-to-end rush (and aided by a Jordie Benn turnover).

That gave Toronto a 2-1 lead. Jeff Petry scored on Montreal’s second shot of the game, but James van Riemsdyk scored off a faceoff less than a minute before Matthews’ first goal to tie the game.

Alex Galchenyuk got Montreal’s first power-play goal after it started the season going 0-for-14 with a man advantage, scoring prior to the end of the first period.

In the second, Matthews had a goal disallowed because of a high stick, Jonathan Drouin got his first as a Canadien and Marleau was credited with a goal following a review.

The teams were tied 3-3 after 40 minutes and the Canadiens were the better team in the final 20 minutes of regulation, outshooting the Leafs 13-6. But they could not beat Andersen, who was sharp.

Andersen, who made 31 saves in the game, had a big stop in overtime and the Leafs took the puck up the ice and scored.

“I am so used to it by now,” the 20-year-old Matthews said of the pass from Nylander to set up the winner.

“He is so good at finding those seams and making those types of passes. For myself, I just need to make sure I’m ready, because the puck is coming.

“It’s always a hostile environment when we come in here and it’s a great atmosphere. To come out with two points is what we came here to do.”